Inbox for TLV

[bartenderbitch]

"Yeah, yeah, leave a message and I'll get back to you at some point."

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[reargunner]

What's really bothering you?

[bartenderbitch]

Don't wanna talk about it like this. But it ain't nothing that important to know or... whatever, better to just let it be.

[reargunner]

Your call.

Know where I am if you want me.

Text to action oops

[bartenderbitch]

[Fucking dammit, he hates that he's going back and forth with all of this.]

Appreciate it.

[All of maybe an hour later he's knocking on his cabin door, somehow someone managed to just wear a pair of actual shorts and found an oversized (on him, somehow, amazingly) hoodie that's pulled over his head.]

[reargunner]

Door's open!

[It isn't always, but right now it is. Cain is lying on his bed with his feet up against the wall, his head propped up on a pillow, and a book balanced on his chest.

Full chaotic bisexual energy.

He twists around to sit up when he sees who is walking in.]

Well, look who it is.

[bartenderbitch]

[... Sir, what the fuck are you even doing right now? He slips in and makes sure to close the door quietly behind him and just blinks slowly at the sight of that before he's sitting up, well, sure.

He huffs rather loudly and shoves his hands into the hoodie, not that the hood does a great job of hiding his ears and just moves with them as his ears press back towards his head.]

Yeah, well. [Someone's evasive.]

[reargunner]

[He closes his book and points at the spot beside him.]

Sit.

[bartenderbitch]

[That... sounds less like an invitation and more of an order to him and he quietly goes to do just that, tail curling around his own waist as if to comfort himself. It's fine, he's totally fine, what do you mean he's not fine?]

[reargunner]

[After a moment of quiet while he silently observes Husk's face, he reaches over and clasps a hand over his arm.]

... You wanna talk about it?

[bartenderbitch]

[For the longest moment he remains silent, a frown plastered on his lips about... everything. Though slowly he lets out a breath he'd been holding, shrugging slowly.]

It's stupid. [Especially for someone his age and having been in Hell of all things, ugh.] I'm not... ashamed of any of that or of being interested in anyone but when it feels like everything is being aired out in public like that... [It's a lot.]

[reargunner]

[Cain's quiet again, not for quite as long this time, before he carefully wets his lips and speaks speculatively.]

Feeling a bit too visible, huh.

[bartenderbitch]

[He can't help a slow nod to those words, not quite sure what else he even really needs to say to it all. Used to being ignored and just looked past most of the time, especially since he had his "fall from power" or whatever the fuck people wanted to call it.]

Been a long time since I've been in the spotlight.

[reargunner]

Mm.

[He really does have a good read on the guy after all... and there is a little twinge of guilt for his part in it.

But hey, he thought Husk could handle it.]

Want to lie down for a bit?

[bartenderbitch]

[He's not the one that put him on there and he thought he could handle it until things got a little... much. Especially putting together just how many people actually seemed interested in him in such a short period of time and still not understanding why they would be or how they could be.]

... Yeah.

[A soft huff of breath as he moves to sprawl on the bed, tail slowly uncurling from his waist at least and it's a question of how he managed to fit his folded wings mostly in the hoodie, but that doesn't matter for the time being.]

[reargunner]

[The young man just chuckles lightly and settles down next to him, retrieving his book to prop it against his thighs as he leans against the wall. He holds it open with one hand while the other slips down against the back of Husk's head and scritches into his fur.]

Better?

[bartenderbitch]

[Shit, how dare he know exactly how to get to him. As soon as he's scritching into that fur he's purring once more, though the sound far lighter than he's probably used to from him at this point. His tail moves to lightly lay over him, making sure to avoid getting in the way of his book.]

Mhmm...

[reargunner]

[Cats gonna cat.

He turns a page carefully with his free hand.]

I know you're purring, but it's still bugging you isn't it.

[bartenderbitch]

[Excuse you, Cain. He pauses in his purring for a moment, looking up from his spot to look up at him.

He hates that he's right, actually.]

How the fuck? [As in: how the fuck did you know that?]

[reargunner]

[A soft snort.]

'Cause you're purring, but it sounds different. I'm not fucking stupid, sweetheart.

[Scritch scritch.]

You're not as hard to read as you think you are.

[bartenderbitch]

[Look, most people around him tend to be that fucking stupid. Or just won't push him on anything, for the most part. The scritches are nice, at least? So there's that.]

Dunno. Last time I was in any sort of spotlight it ended up piss poorly for me, so it's... got connotations, y'know?

[reargunner]

Y'mean what happened with Alastor?

[The implications have been there even if he hasn't heard even close to the whole story. Husk used to be some kind of important but something happened, he got desperate, and then everything went wrong.

Cain sighs sharply and puts his book down again, curling his hand around Husk's tail instead.]

[bartenderbitch]

What led up to all of that, yeah. [His tail shifts to instead curl around his hand in turn, tight but not intending to cut off circulation or anything like that.]

Long story short is that I used to be an Overlord, myself, someone that dealt in souls and was considered one of the most powerful people in our slice of the Pride ring. Only people above us was Lucifer and his daughter, technically. [Yeah, he said that right and he's shifting a little to get more comfortable where he's at.]

I was called the Gambling Overlord, ran casinos and the like, the house always won. I... enjoyed my time doing all that shit until I ran into a streak of losing and when you deal in souls as a gambler, the stakes are pretty high. And when an Overlord is actively losing what's considered their strength, the whole ring has their eyes on you.

[reargunner]

[As intended, to be honest, and he shifts his arm so the fanned, feathered tip of the demon's tail is not getting in the way.

That Husk used to be high on the food chain isn't wholly surprising given what he knows so far. He would have needed to be pretty damned desperate to do what he did and, well... that would sure do it.

Cain listens, his head cocked to one side and tilted towards Husk's voice.]

So... what went wrong? A turn of shit luck like that, it can't just come out of nowhere for someone like that.

[bartenderbitch]

[At least he seems more calm when he has his tail wrapped around him like this, seeming to not like talking about this, for obvious reasons. But he's able to talk about it like this, which is... progress?]

Dunno, that's the whole thing. It's not like I haven't hit bad streaks of luck before, but it's never been something that bad or as quick as it was. Whether it was just my luck turning bad or something else, couldn't quite say. [Nor does he particularly have proof that it was anyone's doing, but he's had... suspicions from time to time.]

[reargunner]

My bets would be on something else. Especially if Alastor was waiting in the wings with a deal that was too good to be true.

[Maybe it's just his natural suspicion but that's how it reads to him.

Whatever it was, it isn't as if it changes anything now.]

'S it really that weird to you to be getting this kind of attention, though?